The Accused (1988)
A familiar comment on women is poetically but succinctly written in the King James Bible:
“But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians.
Appropriately Paul always struck me as a typical male chauvinist and the Catholic Church, which prizes his writings, has remained a bastion of male dominance. But the pre-occupation with women’s hair and what it may represent runs through many cultures and innumerable art works. And this is as true of cinemas as it is of other mediums. What first set me thinking of this as a motif was a double screening on a Sunday afternoon at the old ‘little bit Ritzy’ in Brixton. This consisted of Nuts (Warner Bros. 1987) and Mortal Thoughts (Columbia Pictures 1991). In both films a woman suffers a rape: in parallel in Nuts this is followed by Claudia Draper (Barbra Streisand) and in Mortal Thoughts by Cynthia Kellogg (Demi Moore) cutting her hair. Another example would in The Accused (Paramount Pictures 1988) where Sarah Tobias (Jody Foster) also cuts her hair after she has been raped.
There are many tropes representing women’s hair on film but a number recur very often and would seem to have a metaphoric sense. The cutting of a woman’s hair is found in other art forms, some of which presumably had an influence of cinema. in ‘Le Rouge et le Noir’ (1830) a young woman cuts her hair as a sign of defiance. A famous example in a novel adapted a number of times on film is ‘Jane Eyre’ (1847) where cutting hair is a punishment and accompanies the covering of girl’s hair in the name of religious morals. A later example is ‘For Whom the Bells Toll’ (1940) where a young woman is imprisoned, brutalised and raped by the fascist military and also has her head shaved.
Haircuts – trauma
For Whom the Bells Toll, USA 1943
A studio production that broadly follows the novel but which was cut on release. Robert (Gary Cooper) is an irregular with the Spanish Republican army during the 1930s Civil War. He is sent on a mission behind enemy lines to liaise with a guerrilla group. There he meets María who was the victim of a fascist rape and who has cut her hair extremely short.
Hiroshima Mon Amour, France 1959
Emmanuelle Riva as Elle (“Her”) has a brief affair with Eiji Okada as Lui (“Him”) whilst working on a film in Hiroshima. The film recreates events marking the bombing of the city by the USA [with British assistance] with a nuclear device and the subsequent horrific devastation. Elle recounts in flashback a wartime romance with a German soldier, part of the occupation forces in her native France. She also recounts how, when the war ended, she was punished by the local people, including having her hair brutally cut. Here the actual hair cut is the trauma.
Handgun, Britain 1983 [filmed in USA]
Kathleen (Karen Young) is raped at gunpoint by Larry (Clayton Day). She cuts her hair but also takes lessons in gun skills to exact revenge. The film was cut under orders from the Production Company, EMI.
Nuts 1987
Streisand plays Claudia Draper who is on trial for the murder of a client. In the investigation Claudia’s back ground emerges including molestation by her father, Arthur Draper (Karl Malden).
The Accused, 1988
Jodie Foster plays Sarah who is gang-raped by three men in a bar, cheered on by other men. Her response is to cut her hair very short. The film details how she attempts to obtain justice; this includes a fictional US law used in court
Mortal Thoughts, 1991
Demi Moore plays Cynthia Kellog who works at a hairdressing salon run by her friend Joyce Urbanski (Glenne Headley). She kills Joyce’s husband “Jimmy” when he attempts to rape her. What actually happened only becomes clear in flashbacks as the police investigate.
Anna Karenina 1997 USA
An adaptation of the novel by Tolstoy. Anna (Sophie Marceau) has her hair is cut during the fever that follows her miscarriage of the child fathered by Count Vronsky (Sean Bean).
Water Canada / India 2005
Set in 1938 under British colonial rule Chuyia (Sarala Kariyawasam) is only eight and married. When her husband dies she is forced to enter a widows’ ashram; and her hair is cut and her head shaved. Later she is a victim of prostitution. Another inmate Kalyani (Lisa Ray) has also been prostituted. When she attempts to marry she is locked up and her head is shaved. Later, she commits suicide.
Esme’s secret / Esma’s secret Bosnia-Herzogovina 2006
Set following the Balkan war Esma (Mirjana Karanovic) and her teenage daughter Sara (Luna Mijovic). Late in the film Sara discovers that her father was not a dead ‘shaheed’, [Bosnian mujahideen fighter]; and that she was conceived after her mother suffered multiple rapes by Serbian soldiers. Sara shaves her hair when she discovers this. The original title ‘Grbavica’ means ‘woman with a hump’.
Four Minutes / Vier Minuten Germany, 2006
Jenny (Hannah Herzsprung) is a convict in a prison who receives piano lessons from an elderly music teacher, Gertrud (Monica Bleibtreu). We learn via flashbacks that Jenny suffered abuse as a child and that Gertrud was tortured during the war by an SS Officer, who cut her hair before a planned execution which was not carried out.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Irreland / Britain 2006
Set during the Ireland’s War of Independence. Sinéad Ní Shúilleabháin (Orla Fitzgerald) is a member of the nationalist Cumann na mBan [The Women’s Council]. In retaliation for an ambush of British military the family home irs raided and burnt by Black and Tans [British military auxilaries) and Sinéad’s hair is brutally cut with what looks like a pair of garden shears.
The Wall / Die Wand, Austria / Germany 2012
The film is adapted from a novel by Marlen Haushofer published in 1963. A woman, (Die Frau – Martina Gedeck), accompanies two friends with their dog Lynx [Luchs in the novel] to a hunting lodge in the Austrian Alps. The friends go to a nearby village leaving the woman and the dog, a Weimaraner, at the lo0dge. When they fail to return she tries to find them but finds that she is trapped by an invisible glass wall; the apparent wall covers large area including an alpine pasture. Deprived of human contact the woman sets about survival, her only companion, Lynx, later joined by a cow Bella and a stray cat which delivers a kitten, Pearl. She survives like this for three years; with Lynx her
“”only friend in a world of troubles and loneliness”—always happy to see her.”
Then tragedy strikes. Whilst up at the pasture she finds a strange man who kills Bella’s calf and then Lynx; she shoots the man, rolls his corpse over a cliff and then buries Lynx. Left alone back at the lodge she cuts her hair; a sign of the trauma. She then finishes a report that she has been writing as her various types of paper run out.
A girl at my door / Dohee-ya South Korea 2014
Young-nam (Bae Doona) is a police officer transferred to the command of a small seaside village; her misconduct is an affair with a fellow woman officer. She comes across Do Hee (Kim Sae-ron) a young girl who has suffered abuse from her step father. Do Hee at one point cuts her hair.
An Impossible Love / Un amour impossible, France 2018
Rachel (Virginie Efira) has a brief affair with Philippe (Niels Schneider). Rachel becomes pregnant but Philippe refuses to marry her and |Rachel raises the daughter Chantal (Ambre Hasaj as Chantal at 3–5 years old: Sasha Alessandri-Torrès Garcia as Chantal at 6–8 years old: Estelle Lescure as Chantal in adolescence). Philippe, who marries, continues to see Chantal. Later, with Chantal an adult (Jenny Beth) Rachel and we learn that she was sodomized from when she was a young girl by Philippe and in her teens cut her shoulder length hair.
Nomadland (2020), a sort of US road movie. Fern (Frances McDormand} leaves her home town in Nevada after it is devastated by economic downturn. Se sets off and for a time becomes part of a nomadic group, living on the road, with itinerant work and an alterntive life style. Early in the film an erstwhile neighbout remarks that Fern has cut her hair and we also learn that she lost her husband.
The Rhythm Section, USA 2020
Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) is a traumatised young woman working as a prostitute. Her hair is short, likely cut by herself. Flashbacks reveal her family of five were killed in a plane accident; also that prior to this Stephanie had long hair. Learning that the plane crash was due to terrorists Stephanie sets out on a trail of vengeance.
Lynn and Lucy, Britain 2020
School hood friends who are both married with a child. Lucy’s child dies in suspicious circumstances. Her husband is arrested. The neighbours blame Lucy and she is ostracised. Insults are painted on her car and the house. Lynn gradually comes to believe Lucy is responsible. Lucy calls in at the hair salon where Lynn works and demands she cuts her hair. Lynn cuts it short [similar to The Accused] including most of her hair dyed purple. Lucy leaves and later commits suicide.
La Civil (2021) is an international production set in Mexico; now notorious for gang violence and kidnapping. In the feature Cielo (Arcelia Ramirez), a single mother, is shocked when her daughter Laura (Claudia Goytia) is kidnapped by cartel members. Laura has long and luxurious hair. Cielo’s is usually tied back but when loose hangs past her shoulders. Her husband, Gustavo (Álvaro Guerrero), who has left her for a younger woman, is initially not very helpful; and the same is true of the police and authorities. The cartel members demand and receive a ransom but do not release Laura. Cielo sets outs on a dangerous search for her daughter. Well into what is a long drama Gustavo has retunred to the family home when his young mistress left him. At night Cielo retunrs home, now fairly certain that Laura is dead. She cuts her hair shorter rather than short. Gustavo says he likes it and that it is the shortest it has ever been. Cielo tells him it was shorter before she met him. By the end of the story Laura’s DNA has been identified among the remains in a mass grave.
Mothering Sunday 2021
This is a British period drama. It was made digitally and is in colour and the less common 1.66:1 aspect ratio. It has a complex flashback structure; the story is told from the viewpoint of the present but this is only apparent half-way through the movie. The movie is based on a novel by Graham Swift; the novel seems to make more of reading fiction and literary influences. Moreover in the movie and, possibly in the book, not all the characters’ backstories are clealry set out; leading to a number of ambiguities.
The central character is Jane (Odessa Young) who is actually a writer in the 1930s. However, the novel she is writing has herself as the central chcracter. This Jane is in service in a substantial upper-middle class home, the Niven family, in the 1920s. The Sunday in question is in 1924 when the most dramatic events occur. This day the Niven’s meet with their friends the Hobdays and the Sheringhams. The Hobday daughter Emma (Emma D’Arcy) was engaged to the Niven’s son David who died in World War I. Now Emma is engaged to Paul Sheringham (Josh O’Connor); his family is even wealthier with an even larger mansion. But Jane is having a secret affair with Paul and meets him surreptionsly at the mansion on this Sunday for sex.
We see Jane, with a day off from service, cycling to meet Paul. Her hair, with long strands, is tied up but she loosens it as she cycles; a sign of freedom from service as well as the forthoming sexual encounter. Intriguingly in a flashback we see the meeting where Jane loses her viginity to Paul; though here her hair is still tied up. It appears that their sexual activity started as a paid service.
As the drama suggest Paul is killed in an accident driving to join the families’ luncheon. Jane returning to the family home has to accompany the senior Niven [Colin Firth} to take the news to the Sheringham mansion.
In another flashback we see Jane working in a bookshop and starting to write her novel, which is, at least in part, based on her own experience of being in service. She meets Donald (Sope Dirisu) and the two set up together. Donald is African or African Caribbean; Swift’s novel brings in Joseph Conrad, which may explain this but not so in the movie. Here Jane’s hair is loose but in a different style from the Jane in service. Sadly for Jane Donald dies from a brain tumour.
Neither following the death of Paul in the novel nor following the death of Donald do we see Jane cut her hair. However, at the movies’ end, we see the now older Jane (Glenda Jackson) meeting the press after her novel/s win a literary prize. Her hair is now cut short; presumably cut some time after the death of Donald.
Drift (2023) is a multi-territory production set in Greece and in English and Greek [with some subtitles]; it is based on a novel ‘A Marker to Measure Drift’ by Alexander Maksik and he worked on the screenplay. Jacqueline (Cybthia Erivo) is a African illegal migrant on a small Greek island. She wanders around making money on the beach, hiding out at night in antique ruins but clealry trying to come to terms with a severe trauma. Flashbacks fill in part of her story which includes her affluent home and family in Liberia and studies in london and a relationhip there with Helen (Honor Swinton Byrne).
She is befriended by a US woman, Callie (Alia Shawcat) and the pair bond. Finally, she is able to recount her trauma to Callie, [presented in another flashback) when her family is murdered by a gang and both Jacqueline and her sister raped, the latter also killed. This takes place in one of Liberia’s civil wars, but not dated
In the present Jacqueline has closely cropped hair; in the flashbacks she has long luxuriant beaded locks. It is not clear in the film whether the gang has shaved her hair or that she has done this after the massacre.
Haircuts – change and/or defiance
His Majesty the Barber / Hans Kingl, Höghet Shinglar / Majestät Scheidet Bubiköpfe, 1928 Sweden / Denmark
This is a ‘Ruritarian’ romantic comedy. The barber is André Gregory (Hans Junkermann) in a small Swedish town. His supposed grandson is Nickolo (Enrique Rivero), possibly the heir to throne of Tirania. He is attracted to Astrid (Brita Appelgren), granddaughter of wealthy Sophie (Karin Swanström). Nickolo is an expert in the shingle and the bob; both fashionable styles for women in the period. At one point Nickolo visits Sophie’s castle to cut hair, but Sophie interrupts his hair styling of Astrid. Annoyed and resistant Astrid cuts a lock of her own hair. Intriguingly whilst we see three different women having haircuts there is only one male customer to the barber shop; he is being shaved and walks out before this is completed.
The Nun’s Story, USA 1959
Gabrielle (Audrey Hepburn) leaves the secular world, [and a young suitor], to enter an order of nursing sisters and life in a Catholic convent. When she takes her vows as Sister Luke she is required to have her hair cut and to henceforth wear the restrictive and veiled nun’s attire. This is both a sign of renuinciation but also of commitment.
Jane Eyre (1996) Helen Burns (Leanne Rowe) poses for a drawing by Jane (Anna Paquin) who loosens her hair. Spotted by Mr Brocklehurst (John Wood). Helen is stood in the centre and Jane is sent for scissors. Standing alongside Helen Jane loosens her hair and both girls bow in a flamboyant gesture that sends their hair flailing. Earlier versions also feature the cutting of hair as found in the original novel.
Elizabeth (1998), a joint production by Polygram, Working Title and Channel Four Films. It is, supposedly, a biopic of the early years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England. Wikipedia has an extended paragraph on the many historical inaccuracies. It is worth noting that the director, Shekhar Kapur, previously made Bandit Queen (1994), a biopic of Phoolan Devi, a famous outlaw in India. That film was roundly criticised by some for inaccuracies and exploitation of her story.
In this drama of England’s first Queen Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) we see and hear her ascension to the throne and her early years as monarch. She has to face potential ursurpers, rebellion, attenpted assasination and religions conflicts. Her key adviser, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (Richard Attenborough) constantly pressures her to make a politically expedient marriage. But his replacement, Francis Walsingham (Geffrey Rush), advises her as they stand by a statue of the Virgin Mary, that she needs to become an iconic figure for the nation.
In the following scene Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting cut her hair and paste on make-up to achieve a statue like appearance, recorded in a number of famous portraits. Presenting herself to her courtiers Elisabeth tells Burghley ‘I am married to England’.
Enfants du Siécle / Children of the Century 1999 France / Britain
The film records the affair between George Sand (Juliet Binoche) and Alfred de Musset (Benoit Magimel). Sands cuts her hair after the parting with Musset.
Coco before Chanel / Coco avant Chanel 2009 France
This biopic follows Coco’s career before she becomes Chanel, the famous fashion designer. Played by Audrey Tatou Coco has a varied and at time difficult career in various jobs and also a number of sexual liaisons. Her early design work is for her friend the actress Émilienne d’Alençon played by Emanuelle Devos. When she opens her first salon we also see that she has cut her hair short; “A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.”
Sarah’s Key / Elle s’appelait Sarah, France 2010
Julia (Kristen Scott Thomas) investigates the tragic story of Jewish children who suffered in the round-up of Jews by the French police and French Secret Service. The key is for the door were a child is hidden who subsequently dies. His sister Sarah (Mélusine Mayance as young Sarah: Charlotte Poutrel as adult Sarah) is stricken with guilt. Unravelling the story is complex but finally Julia has it complete. She also finds, unexpectedly, that she is pregnant. Her husband involved in an affair with another women, leaves her and their existing daughter. After the divorce is complete Julia cuts her hair.
Wonderstruck, 2017 USA
Rose (Millicent Simmonds) is one of two children and stories. hers is set in 1927. Living in her father’s home in New Jersey she sets of to find her mother, an actress. Before doing so she cuts her hair.
Little Women, USA 2019
In this adaptation of the Civil War story Jo (Saoirse Ronan) cuts her hair to sell for 25 dollars so that her mother can afford a train ticket to travel to Washington to see her husband and the father of the sisters. Whilst Jo dismisses the cut as not important later we see her crying on stairs with sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen). The father is absent for nearly the whole film, told in flashback. The story is one of female emancipation, mainly in the character of Jo.
Hair up and down– sexuality
Inspector Calls, An Britain 1954
Inspector [Alistair Sims] calls on a family to seek out reason for death of young woman. In flashbacks we see her with [among others] the fiancée who set her up as a mistress; her hair is up? Then the son who picks her up in the street; shot of girl by window with hair down, ringlets.
Anatomy of a Muirder, USA 1959
Lawyer Paul Biegler (james Stewart) defends Lt. Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara) on a murder charge. Frederick claims the killing was in response to the rape of his wife Laura (Lee Remick). During the trial the prosecution lawyer Claude Dancer (George C. Scott) tries to suggest that Laura was flirtatious and provocative to other men. When Laura appears on the witness stand Paul has her dressed decorously and with her hair up under a hat. Challenged by Claude Paul invites Laura to display her hair which she does with aplomb, full hair of ‘glory’,
The Virgin Spring, Sweden 1960
A revenge movie. Töre (Max Von Sydow) has a daughter Karin (Birgitta Pettersson) who is raped and he kills the perpetrators’. Karin rides to church on Sunday; when her mother tries to tie her hair back with a ribbon Karin objects and wears her hair pinned in two locks. The rape is observed by serving girl Ingen (Gunnel Lindblom) who carries an illegitimate child and wears her hair loose throughout.
Deer Hunter, the USA 1978
Returning from Vietnam Michael (Robert de Niro) has a liaison with Linda (Meryl Streep) who lets her hair down before joining Michael in bed at the motel.
The Midwife (Sage Femme, Curiosa Films, France 3 Cinéma, 2017) centres on Claire (Catherine Frot) as the midwife of the title and her relationship with terminally ill Béatrice (Catherine Deneuve). Béatrice was once the mistress of Claire’s father and when she left him he committed suicide. Her function in the relationship is to motivate Claire’s freeing-up from her repressed and irritable persona. In the course of this Claire develops a relationship with Paul (Olivier Gourmet), truck driver who also works a plot in the local allotment. However, the changes in her hair style from its usual pony tail are mainly occasioned by Béatrice. At her behests she visits am acquaintance to borrow money and accepts a drink of liqueur: normally she eschews alcohol. Later in Béatrice’s apartment she tries on her lipstick and perfume and then lets her hair hang loose. A little later she loosens it again as she meets up with Paul, a meeting that leads to sex in the allotment shed. Claire again lets her hair down in further sexual scenes with Oliver, but also, and more notable, as she lies with Béatrice on the bed in her apartment watching slides of her father, Antoine. Thus in this film the loosening of the hair signals a liberation occasioned by a friendship with another woman.
Only You Britain 2019
On New Year’s Eve, Elena (Laia Costa), 35, meets Jake (Josh O’Connor), 26, on the way home. They return to her flat where both talk avoiding and the obvious attraction . Sitting on couch Elena unpicks her hair from top-knot. Then, embarrassed, she goes to the toilet where she pins he hair back up. Later during sex her hair is loose again.
Men’s hair cut – related to religious rituals but also homophobia.
The Ancient Law, Germany 1920
Baruch (Ernst Deutsch) is the son of an orthodox rabbi in a small shteli [Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations in late C9th Eastern Europe]. Against family opposition he goes to Vienna to become an actor. After seeing the director of the theatre and realising the prejudice that exists he returns to his room and cuts off his traditional locks.
Knock On Any Door, USA 1949
This drama takes issue with capital punishment through the story of one delinquent. John Derek plays Nick ‘pretty boy’ Romano charged with murder and defended by Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart). Morton is partly motivated by guilt as his law firm did not defend Romano effectively in an earlier misdemeanour. The motif of hair appears when Romano, found guilty and sentenced, is escorted from his cell to the death chamber. The film’s director Nicholas Ray and the cinematographer Burnett Guffey present a reverse long shot as Romano and guards walk slowly to the death chamber; and clearly visible on the top of Romano’s head is a small shaved patch where the head cap of the electric chair mechanism will be fitted. The condemned person’s legs and head are shaved for the execution.
Romano’s nickname of ‘pretty boy’ is relevant here. Throughout the film he is presented as a good looking youth with, in particular, a fine head of hair. He constantly smooths the hair back with his hand and there is a sense of the feminine in his actions and in his nick name. In the final shot, as ‘The End’ starts to roll, he once more smooths his hair over the shaved patch. In this particular shot the shaved portion of the head resembles a tonsure; the religious hair shave.
Earlier in the film Romano had said that one should
“Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.”
The Bridge on the River Kwai, Britain / USA 1957
At the climax, as the characters prepare for the opening of the bridge, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) prepares to commit hara-kiri [seppuku – ritual suicide). He cuts a tuft of hair and wraps it in a letter; presumably to his family.
Summer of Sam, USA 1999
Set in 1977 when the ’44 caliber [serial] killer’ caused a panic in new York. The main characters live in an Italian-American neighbourhood. One of these is Ritchie (Adrien Brody), who is gay and affects a punk style of hair and dress. At the film’s climax he is attacked by a macho gang led by Joey T (Michael Rispoli) including having his punk hair style shorn.
The Road to Guantánamo, 2006 Britain
The film is a record of the rendition and incarceration of three British citizens, ‘The Tipton Three’, first in Afghanistan, and then at the U.S. Guantánamo Base. Among the violence and torture inflicted on them they have their head hair shaved. This particular action appears in a number of movies representing the U.S. ‘war on terror’. Here it would seem to be mainly a punishment; but it needs to be noted that at Guantánamo, and indeed in Abu Ghraib, the violence involves sexual torture and rape.
Manusangada, 2017 India [Tamil]
Kolapan (Rajeev Anand) returns home when his father dies. The family struggle to arrange a burial due to Brahmin prejudice against Dalits. Finally when the funeral is arranged, Kolapan’s hair is shaved as part of the funeral rites.
Monster, 2023 Japan (Kaibutsu).
This is another fine drama by Kore-eda Hirokazu and features his continuing concerns with family and children. The narrative is presented in three segments which provide a take on the same events from the viewpoints of the three central characters: a single mother Mugino Saori (Andō Sakura): her son in fifth grade Mugino Minato (Kurokawa Sōya): and his school teacher Michitoshi Hori (Nagayama Eita). The film opens with the a series of events as experienced by Saori who believes her son is being mistreated at school by Hori: Hori’s flashback shows that the events are more complicated than they seem, partly complicated by Japanese mores and customs: whilst finally the flashback from Minato’s viewpoint shows that the problems have arisen from his friendship with a fellow pupil, Hoshikawa Yori (Hiiragi Hinata), who is abused by his father but bullied by his classmates. The latter causes Minato to try and keep the friendship secret and the relationship seems likely to be considered outside the social norms. In the opening segment there is the discovery by Saori that Minato has been cutting his own hair; this is expanded in the two flashbacks. And the cutting of his own hair, along with other behaviour that seems odd, is due to the tramaus surrounding his friendship.
Variations
An interesting example occurs in the USA/Canadian title Arrival ((2016). Louise (Amy Adams) is a linguist, is recruited by the US military to help in establishing communications with aliens who have appeared in a futuristic spaceship; the question of language is central to the story. The complexities of the plot includes flashbacks and flashfowards, though it takes time to identify how these work. In what is the present for most of the narrative Louise has her hair tied back. In some future sequences, with a husband and a daughter, it hangs loose. But the most intriguing sequence is in what we think is the present; as the climax approaches, [different from the source short story], Louise enter the space ship alone, for the first time. We see her in a cloud of mist wheeling and tumbling as if in a linguistic orgasm; and her is loose and also tumbling. The sequence is reminsicent of the sexual scene in the earlier The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976).
Talking Pictures 